Technicolor: Historic visual effects studio collapses in UK

Technicolor Group, which has provided visual effects for many well-known films, including Disney's 1940 classic "Pinocchio" and the 2024 blockbuster "Mufasa: The Lion King," has entered administration in the UK. The group owns several leading visual effects studios, including MPC, Mikros Animation, and The Mill, with operations spanning the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and India.

Technicolor's board of directors had previously been seeking to sell the business but failed to find a buyer. The administrators stated that "the majority" of the company's 440+ employees in the UK have been made redundant. This administration only involves the company's business units in the United Kingdom.

Joint administrator Nick Holloway said, "Economic headwinds impacting the whole of the creative industries have proven too strong to overcome, leading to Technicolor UK Limited entering administration today." Technicolor was founded in 1915 and participated in the production of its first film in 1917. Early on, the company collaborated with major studios, including Disney.

Subsequently, the company acquired major visual effects studios, including The Mill (which won an Oscar for its work on the 2001 film "Gladiator") and MPC (which recently completed large-scale remakes of the Disney films "The Lion King" and "The Jungle Book"). Recent projects include "Kraven the Hunter," "Young Woman and the Sea," and "Emilia Pérez." Mikros Animation's projects include the two most recent "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" films and the "PAW Patrol" film series.

Visual effects studios play a crucial role in filmmaking. Most modern big-budget films and television shows rely heavily on visual effects, transporting actors and audiences to outer space, the distant past, or the deep sea. The appearance and non-verbal performances of characters and creatures (whether fictional or otherwise) are often created in part or in whole by animators and other professionals. In addition to purely animated films and television shows, many live-action films are largely the product of visual effects studio employees. Many employees are involved in film production on fixed-term contracts, so layoffs may not reflect the full impact of corporate difficulties on employment.

According to animation news publisher Cartoon Brew, CEO Caroline Parot stated in an email sent over the weekend that "external headwinds" have exacerbated problems caused by factors such as the post-COVID recovery. She also stated that the American writers' strike led to a slowdown in demand for visual effects work, which put "severe" pressure on cash flow. The same issues will increase employee anxiety, who may worry about re-entering a relatively sluggish job market for visual effects professionals.

One veteran, claiming to have worked at The Mill for 13 years, wrote on Reddit: "May the renders rest in peace." This refers to the computationally intensive process of generating the final, film-quality images, i.e., the rendering process.